Mid-season slump motivated Hurricanes

OMAHA, Neb. -- After winning their second College World Series in three years, the Miami Hurricanes couldn't help but talk about the lowest point of their season.

''Going back to when we were swept by Cal State-Fullerton at home, I'm sure people were wondering what was going on at Miami, including myself,'' coach Jim Morris said after the Hurricanes beat Stanford 12-1 to win the national title on Saturday.

Miami lost to Cal State-Fullerton on April 1, completing a three-game sweep that left the Hurricanes 25-9 and wondering just how good they were.

''After that weekend against Fullerton, we were kind of down,'' said first baseman Kevin Brown, who hit three home runs and had 10 RBIs in four College World Series games. ''But we came together and Coach had a meeting and kind of told us what we needed to do to get back to Omaha.''

Morris said his team needed to take a cue from its conqueror -- focus on fundamentals and play as a team.

''I think it was a wakeup call for us,'' Morris said. ''I didn't think we played that badly, but Fullerton played the game the way it was supposed to be played. I told our guys, 'That club will be in Omaha. If you want to be in Omaha, you need to play like that.'''

Morris was right. Cal State-Fullerton ended up making it to the College World Series, and Miami took his message to heart. Center fielder Charlton Jimerson, the series' Most Outstanding Player, also called a meeting of his teammates and the Hurricanes (53-12) went 28-3 the rest of the way.

''We talked about some things we needed to talk about,'' Brown said. ''We got a lot of those issues taken care of, and ever since then we've been doing everything we've had to do to win.''

Miami abandoned the idea of trying to slug it out with teams, and used its speedy lineup with a Division I-leading 228 stolen bases to its advantage. The Hurricanes also had the ability to score runs in bunches, as in a 21-13 victory in their CWS opener with Tennessee.

And Miami also showed it can pitch. The Hurricanes, who boasted one of the country's top bullpens, shut down Southern California 4-3 on Monday.